La Jolla, CA – A hormone that helps the body adapt to stress may provide a key to designing treatments for congestive heart failure, according to a study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.

La Jolla, CA – Researchers at the Salk Institute and the University of Geneva have discovered a novel mechanism to explain how the drug of abuse GHB affects the human nervous system. GHB is also known as the “date rape” drug.

La Jolla, CA – A Salk Institute team of biologists, mathematicians, and physicists has uncovered a novel paradigm for cell communication that provides new insights into the complex question of how the body determines where organs are placed.

La Jolla, CA – Nerve cells firing in spontaneous waves create the brain’s first sharp visual images during a short but critical phase of development, Salk Institute researchers have found. The study may lead to ways to better treat nerve cell injury and even treatments of diseases that occur in later life, like Parkinson’s.

La Jolla, CA – Ronald Evans, the March of Dimes Chair in Developmental and Cell Biology at the Salk Institute, was named to the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Part of the U.S. National Academies, the IOM each year selects members who have made major contributions to furthering human health and advancing science.

La Jolla, CA – Salk Institute scientists have for the first time linked the function of a group of proteins required for DNA duplication and accurate chromosome movement during cell division. The findings may help explain the genetic influences behind some forms of cancer.

La Jolla, CA – A study led by the Salk Institute and the University of California at Berkeley has found new methods to identify functional genes in the common mustard weed Arabidopsis. This technology may lead to the development of new ways to modify plants to grow faster, produce more food and resist disease.

La Jolla, CA – Two Salk Institute researchers ranked within the top 25 scientists worldwide for their work’s influence in any field, according to an organization that monitors the impact of scientific publications.

La Jolla, CA – Scientists are developing a new paradigm for how the brain functions. They propose that the brain is not a huge fixed network, as had been previously thought, but a dynamic, changing network that adapts continuously to meet the demands of communication and computational needs.

La Jolla, CA – A unique gene therapy method postpones the symptoms and nearly doubles the life span in a mouse animal model of Lou Gehrig’s disease, a research team led by the Salk Institute has found.

La Jolla, CA – An enzyme studied by scientists for years can prevent tangles of proteins from forming in the brain’s nerve cells – as occurs in patients with age-dependent Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study by investigators at the Salk Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.

La Jolla, CA – A Salk Institute study provides significant new information in the process of allowing scientists to understand the function of plant genes. The study is published in the August 1 issue of Science.